In the 76-seat Senate, the Greens won one seat in each of the six states, gaining the sole balance of power with a total of nine seats, after previously holding a shared balance of power with the Family First Party and independent Nick Xenophon.[14][15] The Coalition was reduced from 37 to 34 and Labor was reduced from 32 to 31. The two remaining seats were occupied by Xenophon and Victoria's new Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan. Family First Party Senator Steve Fielding was defeated. These changes took effect in the Senate on 1 July 2011.[16]

Labor and the Coalition each won 72 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, a loss of eleven and a gain of seven respectively. Labor retained a majority of seats in a majority of states against the Coalition − New South Wales (26 to 20), Victoria (22 to 14), South Australia (6 to 5), and Tasmania (4 to 0), but fell sharply in Queensland (8 to 21) with a pre-existing minority in Western Australia (3 to 11). Labor won their largest two-party preferred vote in Victoria and Tasmania since official two-party records began in 1949, and in South Australia, their fourth-largest.[22]

Adam Bandt won the first seat for the Greens at a general election in the seat of Melbourne. He had previously announced he would align with Labor in the event of a hung parliament.[24] On 1 September the Greens declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply.[25][26][27]

Andrew Wilkie, a former Greens candidate and now independent, was elected as the Member for Denison. On 2 September 2010 he declared his support for Labor on confidence and supply.[28]

Tony Crook won the seat of O'Connor for the National Party of Western Australia, defeating Liberal Party incumbent Wilson Tuckey. There was dispute over affiliation, with some classing Crook as a member of the Coalition and including him in their Coalition totals. The WA National Party subsequently issued a statement saying in part, "The Nationals WA as an independent political party are not bound by the rules of a coalition agreement".[29] Crook says, "In every news report and press report we see, my number is being allocated in with the Coalition and it shouldn't be".[30] The National Party of Western Australia prior to and for more than 20 months subsequent to the election were in no federal Coalition agreement, Crook stated he was a crossbencher, and that he and the WA Nationals were open to negotiating with either side to form government.[31][32][33] On 6 September Crook declared his support for the Coalition on confidence and supply, but would otherwise sit on the crossbenches.[34] On 6 May 2012, it was announced that Crook would join the Nationals party room and be formally part of the Coalition.[35]

Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, all independents, were re-elected.[4][36] Both Katter and Windsor were successful at previous elections, while Oakeshott was elected at the 2008 Lyne by-election. All are former members of the National Party, a minor party in the Coalition.[37] However, all three said they would be open to negotiating with either side to form government. They said they would engage in discussion as a bloc but vote individually.[38][39] On 7 September, Katter declared his support for the Coalition on confidence and supply.[9] Later that day, Windsor and Oakeshott declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply.[40][41]

The Senate has 76 seats. Forty seats were up for election; six in each of the six states and two in each of the two territories. The terms of the four senators from the territories commenced on election day, all other terms took effect from 1 July 2011.[45][46] The Coalition holds 34 seats and Labor holds 31 seats, with the balance of power shifting solely to the Australian Greens with nine seats, after previously holding a shared balance of power with the Family First Party and independent Nick Xenophon. The Labor government requires the support of at least eight non-Labor Senators to pass legislation.

Divisions changing hands

Members in italics did not re-contest their House of Representatives seats at this election. Six notional boundary redistributed seats were contested at this election. Based on booths contested at the previous election, the seats redistributed by the AEC from being marginal Coalition seats to marginal Labor seats – Dickson, Gilmore, Herbert, Macarthur and Swan – were all retained by the Coalition. Greenway was redistributed to become a marginal to fairly safe Labor seat, and was retained by Labor.

House of Representatives

The Labor Party, led by Julia Gillard, and the Liberal Party, led by Tony Abbott, were the predominant parties to contest the election. The smaller National Party led by Warren Truss is in a coalition with the Liberal Party. Following the 2007 federal election, the 150-member Australian House of Representatives consisted of 83 Labor-held seats, 65 Coalition seats (55 Liberal and 10 National), and two seats held by independents. The Australian Greens won 8 per cent of the 2007 vote, and the Family First Party won 2 per cent, with the Greens winning 1 seat in the lower house.

Redistributions

Since the previous national election in 2007 there were a number of redistributions. These realignments of electorate boundaries are regularly undertaken by the Australian Electoral Commission and they maintain similar voter numbers in each electorate. They saw Labor's notional number of seats increase to 88 with the coalition's notional number decreased to 59, with independents in three. The swing required by the opposition to win majority government had decreased by approximately 0.1 percent.[52]

The redistribution of electoral divisions for Western Australia made the Liberal held Swan notionally Labor, and vastly changed Kalgoorlie and O'Connor, with the former being safer for the Liberals, and the latter becoming more marginal. Kalgoorlie was also renamed Durack. The redistribution also damaged the WA Nationals' chances of a House of Representatives seat.[53][54][55]Tasmania was also redistributed but, while there were some changes to boundaries, little changed in terms of seat margins.[56][57]

New South Wales lost a seat to Queensland due to population changes for the second election in a row. The Labor Party suggested the abolition of the marginal Liberal seat of Macarthur, while the Liberal Party suggested that Liberal-held Hume and National-held Riverina be merged to create a new seat called "Bradman" in honour of Sir Donald Bradman. The National Party suggested the abolition of the Labor-held city seat of Banks.[58] The draft New South Wales redistribution, published in August 2009, proposed that Reid be abolished and that Lowe be renamed "McMahon" in honour of former Prime Minister Sir William McMahon. In response to widespread criticism of the abolition of the name "Reid", the finalised redistribution, published in October 2009, instead had Lowe renamed "Reid" and Prospect replaced with McMahon. Boundary changes also resulted in the Liberal seats of Macarthur, Greenway and Gilmore becoming notionally Labor-held, with major changes to other seats, including Calare, Parkes and Macquarie.[59]

In Queensland, the seat of Wright was created as a Liberal-held seat based on the Gold Coast hinterland. The redistribution saw the status of Blair change from marginal Labor to a safe Labor seat. The status of marginal Liberal seats Dickson and Herbert also changed to marginal Labor seats.[60]

A redistribution for Victoria commenced in 2010, but was not finalised before the election was called.[61]

For a majority, the government requires an additional seven votes from non-Labor senators. If the Liberal Party chooses to vote with the Labor Party, support from the crossbench is not required.

Senate terms expiring

Forty seats in the Senate were up for election:

36 senators representing the six states; each state elected half of its 12 Senate seats. The six-year terms of these 36 senators will start on 1 July 2011; the terms of the existing senators representing the states will end on 30 June 2011.

4 territory senators: the ACT and the NT each elected two senators, whose terms started on election day and will expire the day before the next election for the House of Representatives.

The party composition of these 40 senators whose terms will expire is:

Liberal: 18 (14 ongoing, to expire 30 June 2014)

National: 2 (3 ongoing)

CLP: 1 (0 ongoing)

ALP: 16 (16 ongoing)

Green: 2 (3 ongoing)

Family First: 1 (0 ongoing)

Independent Nick Xenophon: 0 (1 ongoing)

These seats are listed in order of election for the six states and two territories:[62]

House of Representatives opinion polling

Newspoll

The election-eve Newspoll of over 2000 voters reported Labor on a 50.2 percent two-party-preferred vote.[63] A post-election Newspoll taken 27–29 August 2010 of 1134 voters revealed 47 percent wanted a Gillard Labor government, to 39 percent for an Abbott Coalition government, while 14 percent were uncommitted. There was no difference between male and female voters. Ages 18–34 and 34–49 were even stronger for Labor, while those above 50 bucked the trend preferring the Coalition 45 percent to 40 percent.[64]

Poll of 28,000

A JWS Research "mega-poll" was conducted by robocall late in the campaign and published by Fairfax. It polled an Australian record of 22,000 voters in 54 marginal seats and a further 6,000 in safe seats. It revealed a national two-party-preferred vote for Labor of 51.6 percent. Losses in Queensland and New South Wales were offset by the gains of Dunkley, McEwen (both 57 percent for Labor), and Cowper and Boothby (both 54 percent for Labor), finishing with a total of 79 Labor, 68 coalition, 3 independent.[65][66][67]

Two-party-preferred vote

The graph shows a timeline of the estimates by three main polling companies – Roy Morgan (green), Nielsen (blue), and Newspoll (red) – of the two-party-preferred vote for Labor from January 2008 to 20 July 2010. The pink dot on the left side represents the actual 2PP vote for Labor in the November 2007 election.

Primary vote

The graph shows a timeline of Newspoll's estimates of the primary vote for Labor (red), the Coalition (blue), the Greens (green), and other parties or independent candidates (magenta) from 2007 to 2010. The four dots on the left side represent the actual vote for each party in the November 2007 election.

Notes

^The National Party of Western Australia prior to and subsequent to the election are in no federal Coalition agreement, Nationals WA MP Tony Crook has stated that he is a crossbencher, and has said: "In every news report and press report we see, my number is being allocated in with the Coalition and it shouldn't be". Thus, the party has been counted separately from the Coalition totals.

^ abOn 6 August 2010, the High Court of Australia ruled in the case Rowe v Electoral Commissioner that certain provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 were invalid, specifically those introduced in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006, which closed the electoral roll on the day the writ for a federal election is issued. An estimated 100,000 enrolments were reconsidered by the Australian Electoral Commission, which contacted applicants to inform them they would be eligible to vote in this election.

External links

Anne Elizabeth Urquhart (née Polden; born 18 October 1957) is an Australian politician and member of the Australian Labor Party. She was elected to the Australian Senate representing Tasmania at the 2010 Australian federal election.Before entering politics Urquhart first worked at the Simplot food processing factory in Ulverstone, before becoming an official with the Food Preservers' Union of Australia (FPUA). The FPUA later merged into Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and from 2004 Urquhart was the state secretary of that body in Tasmania.

This article provides details on candidates who stood at the 2010 Australian federal election.

Nominations were formally declared open by the Australian Electoral Commission following the issue of the writ on 19 July 2010. Nominations closed on 29 July 2010. The received nominations were declared publicly on 30 July 2010.The election was held on Saturday 21 August 2010.

The Division of Lowe was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was located in the inner western suburbs of Sydney, on the south shore of the Parramatta River. It included the suburbs of Drummoyne, Five Dock, Croydon, Croydon Park, Burwood, Enfield, Homebush, Strathfield, Concord, Rhodes, Canada Bay, Cabarita, Abbotsford and Mortlake.

The division was named after the Rt Hon Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke, a former Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and former Home Secretary of the United Kingdom. The division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 11 May 1949, and was first contested at the 1949 federal election. It was first held by Sir William McMahon, who retained the seat for over 32 years, until 1982. He was prime minister 1971–72.

Following the 2009 redistribution of NSW, the seat of Lowe was abolished for the 2010 Australian federal election, with the bulk of its territory transferring to nearby Reid.

John Richard Pyke (born 28 August 1940) is an Australian physicist and a former university law lecturer. In retirement he still writes about Constitutional Law. He was a Queensland Senate candidate at the 2001 and 2010 Australian Federal Election.

Michelle Anne Rowland (born 16 November 1971), an Australian politician, is a member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Greenway representing the Australian Labor Party. At the 2010 Australian federal election, Rowland won the seat for Labor following the 2009 electoral distribution, making Greenway notionally Labor, on a margin of 5.7%. The seat was previously held by Liberal Louise Markus, who contested the more marginal seat of Macquarie at the 2010 federal election.

Rowland suffered a swing of 4.79 points against her, making Greenway one of the most marginal seats in the country. Rowland was re-elected to the seat at the 2013 federal election with an increased majority, and was also subsequently appointed to the Labor opposition's frontbench as Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications as well as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism. In October 2015, Rowland was elevated to Shadow Minister for Small Business as well as continuing as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism.In the lead-up to the 2013 election campaign opinion polls had shown that she would lose Greenway, but her subsequent victory was helped during the campaign by the blunder of her Liberal opponent Jaymes Diaz in not stating clearly the Coalition's policy on asylum seekers.

Since September 2016, Rowland supports same-sex marriage. In 2012, Rowland was one of the 98 MPs that did vote against same-sex marriage.

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras Pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. Designed for the outcome of the 2010 federal election, the pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament, 72 Labor, 72 Coalition, 1 Nationals WA, 1 Green and 4 independent, according to the percentage point margin on a two candidate preferred basis. The two party result is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties in an election, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted. Swing is never uniform, but in practice variations of swing among the Australian states usually tend to cancel each other out. Seats are arranged in safeness categories according to the Australian Electoral Commission's classification of safeness. "Safe" seats require a swing of over 10 per cent to change, "fairly safe" seats require a swing of between 6 and 10 per cent, while "marginal" seats require a swing of less than 6 per cent.

The following pendulum is known as the Mackerras Pendulum, invented by psephologist Malcolm Mackerras. Based upon the outcome of the 2007 federal election and changes before the 2010 election, the pendulum works by lining up all of the seats held in Parliament, 83 Labor, 55 Liberal, 9 National, and 3 independent, according to the percentage point margin on a two party preferred basis.The margins are post-redistribution, leaving some Liberal Party MPs in seats that have a notional majority of Labor Party voters, totalling 88 Labor, 59 coalition, 3 independent. In such cases, the seat is aligned with Labor and the MP's name is highlighted in blue.

The two-party result is also known as the swing required for the seat to change hands. Given a uniform swing to the opposition or government parties in an election, the number of seats that change hands can be predicted. Swing is never uniform, but in practice variations of swing among the Australian states usually tend to cancel each other out. Seats are arranged in categories of safeness following to the Australian Electoral Commission's classification of safeness. "Safe" seats require a swing of over 10 per cent to change, "fairly safe" seats require a swing of between 6 and 10 per cent, while "marginal" seats require a swing of less than 6 per cent.Queensland Liberal and National MPs contested the 2010 federal election as members of the Queensland Liberal National Party. They retained their original party affiliation until after the election.

The following tables show state-by-state results in the Australian House of Representatives at the 2010 federal election, Labor 72, Coalition 72, Nationals WA 1, Australian Greens 1, with 4 independents.

The following tables show state-by-state results in the Australian Senate at the 2010 federal election. Senators total 34 Coalition, 31 Labor, nine Green, one Democratic Labor Party, and one independent, Nick Xenophon. New Senators took their places from 1 July 2011.

Steven John Miles (born 15 November 1977) is an Australian politician. He has been the Labor member for Murrumba in the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2017, and previously represented Mount Coot-tha from 2015 to 2017.

This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by authors
(here).
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.